Dr. Sue Starfield

Biography

Sue Starfield is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, where she also served as the Director of the Learning Centre from 2000 to 2017. Her research publications cover a range of areas, including tertiary academic literacies, doctoral writing, postgraduate pedagogy, and English for Specific Purposes. She has been active in supervising students in these areas, focusing on academic writing and access equity issues for non-native speakers in higher education, particularly those from refugee backgrounds. Starfield has co-edited and authored significant works in applied linguistics and academic writing, including the Palgrave Handbook of Applied Linguistics Research Methodology and the Handbook of English for Specific Purposes. Her current research interests extend to qualitative research methods and the evolution of academic genres in thesis and dissertation writing. Starfield has received multiple grants from the Australian Research Council to support her research endeavors. Before moving to Australia, she worked for fifteen years at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, where she developed academic programs to promote successful access to higher education for students affected by apartheid education.

Research Interests

Experience